600 pieces of ivory seized

Officials in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa have impounded more than 600 pieces of ivory, weighing two tons, officials said.

Kenya Wildlife Service warders stand in front of tusks recovered from poachersPhoto: AFP

8:09PM GMT 15 Jan 2013

The head of the port operations at the port, Gitau Gitau confirmed the seizure, but said no arrests had been made. Mr Gitau said the documents used to ship the cargo would be used to track its owners.

"They were labelled as decorating stones and were headed to Indonesia from Tanzania," a police source based at the port said.

Two weeks ago, officials in Hong Kong seized more than a ton of ivory worth about $1.4 million (£870,000) in a shipment from Kenya.

Ivory trade is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is due to hold its next meeting in March.

East African nations have recorded an increase in poaching incidents. Just last week, a family of 11 elephants was massacred in a Kenyan park in what officials called the country's worst incident of its kind in the past three decades.